{"id":13746,"date":"2026-01-29T12:22:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/federal-judge-blocks-trump-threats-to-remove-coloradans-from-snap\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:31:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:31:58","slug":"federal-judge-blocks-trump-threats-to-remove-coloradans-from-snap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/federal-judge-blocks-trump-threats-to-remove-coloradans-from-snap\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge blocks Trump threats to remove Coloradans from SNAP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"FILE
FILE \u2013 SNAP EBT information sign is displayed at a gas station in Riverwoods, Ill., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh, file)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh, file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A federal judge Wednesday temporarily blocked a Trump administration order issued last month<\/a> that would have forced Colorado to recertify families with low incomes on food stamps or risk losing food assistance benefits.<\/p>\n

As part of what the U.S. Department of Agriculture called a pilot project, the administration Dec. 18 ordered Colorado to conduct in-person interviews for 100,000 households receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or food stamps, in five counties within 30 days, a task attorneys for Colorado described as impossible.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson, who sits on the federal bench in Denver and was appointed by President Barack Obama, issued the preliminary injunction against the Trump administration after a hearing Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who brought the case, said Trump\u2019s USDA issued the order to Colorado as a way to punish the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration cannot punish Colorado into submission, and I\u2019ll continue to fight back when the federal government harms Colorado and acts like it\u2019s above the law,\u201d Weiser said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Jackson said a written order would follow.<\/p>\n

If Colorado failed to complete the recertification of SNAP beneficiaries, USDA threatened sanctions, including potentially removing Colorado from the SNAP program. That could impact 600,000 Coloradans, Weiser said.<\/p>\n

He asked a judge to intervene earlier this month on the SNAP issue as an amendment to the case he brought against the Trump administration in October<\/a> seeking to block the relocation of Space Command from Colorado Springs to Alabama<\/a>. As part of that lawsuit, Weiser is also seeking relief from the Trump administration\u2019s moves to:<\/p>\n

Terminate $109 million in transportation funding<\/a> and plans to end an additional $615 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, announced Dec. 16.Dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research<\/a> in Boulder, also announced Dec. 16.Deny on Dec. 20 of two disaster relief assistance requests<\/a> from the Federal Emergency Management Agency related to devastating wildfires and flooding.<\/div>\n

The Space Command question and the other funding issues are still pending with the court.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preliminary injunction blocks order that would have required Colorado to conduct in-person interviews for 100,000 households receiving food stamps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1435,28,315],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-food-insecurity","tag-headlines","tag-president-donald-trump"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13746"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19139,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13746\/revisions\/19139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13746"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}